Joel Kenrick

Joel Kenrick is a former special adviser to the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne until his resignation in February 2012.[1]
Kenrick is now a freelance climate consultant, and previously worked as a climate change policy adviser for the CBI. [2] More recently, he has worked for lobbying firms Tetra Strategy and Bellenden,[3] as well as Adam Smith International in Nigeria, Greenpeace and WWF-UK. [4]

Background

As a student, Kenrick was involved in a variety of social and political activism. While at Atlantic College, he organised a protest at an RAF base in South Wales. Interviewed by the BBC, he commented: "We think that if America and Britain are serious about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction then they should start at home".[7] At LSE, Kenrick was a member of student environmental and anti-poverty organisation People and Planet: he ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 2007 to fundraise for the group.[8]

Kenrick was parliamentary researcher to Chris Huhne while the latter was Shadow Environment and Home Secretary, and during the 2007 leadership election campaign. He went on to work as a climate change policy adviser at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).[9]

In favour of 'limited' nuclear power

At the Lib Dems annual party conference in September 2013 Kenrick argued in favour of allowing nuclear power to tackle climate change albeit without public subsidies, while his former DECC special adviser colleague Duncan Brack argued against its use, claiming this was a "chimera". [11]

However Kenrick later maintained via a Twitter reply to Guardian journalist Rowena Mason that he was not so at odds with Brack's stance.